Just 12 months ago, the 21-year-old was playing for Boroughmuir and the Scotland Under-21 team and watching games against the Barbarians from the Murrayfield stands.

But, following the retirement of Bryan Redpath from the international scene after the World Cup in the autumn and the arrival of Matt Williams as head coach of the national team, a vacancy appeared for a new scrum-half.

Edinburgh Gunners Mike Blair and Graeme Beveridge of Glasgow Warriors have also been vying for the number nine jersey.

Despite the disappointment of playing in the RBS 6 Nations earlier this year, Borders man Cusiter will start against the Barbarians at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Now the scrum-half has set himself the seemingly simple task of finally winning a game while wearing the Dark Blue shirt.

Cusiter said: I am really looking forward to it, I think I have watched this fixture three times in the last three years.

When I was at university in Edinburgh, I used to come down to watch it and it is a great game, so, hopefully, it will be as good to play in.

It seemed a long way off that I would be playing in this game, because I was just playing club rugby this time last season for Boroughmuir and for Scotland Under-21s so I did not
really predict I would have come so far.

I have set myself goals this season and I have managed to achieve a few of those and my next one is to obviously win a game in a Scotland jersey, which has not happened yet.

I am delighted with my progress and I hope I can keep being involved and, hopefully, we can get our first win soon.